Suitcases and Cataclysms
by smallerinfinities
Summary: "Beca and Chloe both thought their lives were over that night. Little did they know, their lives would go on, and their paths were now on a collision course." Beca and Chloe couldn't be more different. Chloe was the star high school debater, while Beca was the weirdo with the stutter and the giant headphones. However, their lives intersect after a night of debate.
1. Chapter 1

Without argumentation, could life as we know it go on? Arguments are a testament to human passion. Debates wouldn't be possible without people caring about their results. Whether it's a teenage girl criticizing the drink served to her in a Starbucks, or Martin Luther King Jr. standing up against racism, argumentation keeps the world changing.

On a March night in New Jersey, two arguments altered the course of two lives. On one side of New Jersey, Chloe Beale was debating her heart out. Chloe and her partner argued their way to the final round of the New Jersey State High School Debate Championship. Farming subsidies may seem like a silly thing for a high schooler to care about, but it made perfect sense to Chloe. Approaching the topic from every angle, researching every point, arguing from every side - Chloe's passion for debate was practically exploding out of every pore of her body. But farming subsidies weren't the source of Chloe's passion. The years resolution could have been that Trix cereal is better than Lucky Charms, and Chloe still would have worked just as hard. Chloe's true passion was winning. As she looked at her partner, Aubrey, the empty space where her first place trophy would go weighed heavily on her mind. She pushed the feelings aside, because she knew they would win. They had to win.

On the other side of New Jersey, a very different debate was going on in Beca Mitchell's house. She could hear her parents screaming at each other through the ceiling. She always hid out in the basement when they fought. By now, she was used to the constant yelling and stomping, but it still gave her an uneasy feeling. She was embarrassed, helpless, and strangely self-conscious. Something felt wrong in the world, like a big black stain in the universe that she couldn't remove. A stain that she might have helped paint. That's why she hid. She was certain the fighting was partially her fault. Beca and her sister, Vanessa, were just too messed up for their father. She was sure of it.

"Oh right! Take the good suitcases, sure! Of course that's what you would do! Take the _good_ ones!" Beca's mother screeched, dragging out all of her vowels in a sarcastic and biting tone.

"What? Should I put my stuff in a pillow case instead? Huh? Is that what I should do?" Beca's dad retorted.

There was a crashing sound as bags and suite cases were thrown out the door, hitting the walls along the way. Beca heard her dad's stomping footsteps pause by the front door, and then approach her hiding place. She cringed. Beca's dad stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking at Beca. Vanessa's head poked around the door frame.

"You ... you guys are gonna be okay." he lied. "I won't be living here anymore. But you'll be okay. Okay?"

It was not okay. Not remotely. But Beca nodded her head. Her father rushed out of the house, into his car, and sped away. His car knocked the trashcans over, leaving more than one kind of mess behind him.

Chloe watched Aubrey with a mixture of admiration and triumph. She could feel the victory hovering just out of reach as her fingers flew across her notebook paper. They had the other team beat. Aubrey approached the podium to make the final rebuttal against the other team. Chloe could see Aubrey's shoulders rise up towards her ears from the stress, but she knew Aubrey would be fine. This was the kill shot. This is what they'd been waiting for.

"Our next advantage states that human relations can only survive in a atmosphere of total equality. Our next advantages states that human relations ... can only ... I ... wait, I just said that ..."

Chloe froze. The auditorium froze.

"I-I ... wait, w-wait a minute," Aubrey stuttered.

"... wait."

Aubrey riffled through her notes, but they were in a different language. That's what it looked like anyways. The auditorium was so quiet that that everyone could hear the growling noises of her stomach. Chloe's eyes widened.

_Oh no._

Before anyone could understand what was happening, vomit was exploding from Aubrey's mouth like a fire hose. The people in the front rows were screaming and falling over themselves trying to escape the pungent waves of orange vomit spewing from Aubrey's mouth. Chloe ran to her friend. "Aubrey no! Stop, Aubrey please you have to STOP!" Chloe screamed at her. When it finally did stop, Aubrey looked up at Chloe with tears flooding her blue eyes. A squeak slipped through her lips before she sprinted off the stage.

The next twenty minutes passed in a blur. The mess was cleaned. Aubrey and Chloe withdrew from the final round, knowing they couldn't face the opposing team or the audience or themselves. Aubrey, never looking Chloe in the eyes, called for a taxi. Her parents had left, perhaps out of shame. Chloe locked herself in a bathroom stall, letting the tears she had held back flow. One thought raced through her mind over and over.

_Debate is life._

And now life was over.

The debates were over on both side of New Jersey. Only silence remained. The silence of Beca's abandoned house and the silence of the deserted bathroom Chloe was sobbing in. Suitcases end marriages and farming subsidies launch cataclysms. If you don't know how they could inspire all this commotion, then you don't know life, and there's nothing more that can be said about it. Beca and Chloe both thought their lives were over that night. Little did they know, their lives would go on, and their paths were now on a collision course.


	2. Chapter 2

A summer passed after the incidents that left Beca and Chloe silent. For Chloe, it was an internal silence. There was a part of her that remained secret and hidden. Outwardly, she was still the same vivacious redhead. Beca on the other hand was experiencing a more traditional kind of silence. While Chloe could easily wield words to her advantage, Beca struggled with even the simplest sentences. Beca had lived with a stutter since she was little. In elementary school, the stutter was just a slight hindrance. Her voice only stumbled from time to time. Back then, she was happy, outgoing, and friendly. Other kids liked her and only a few criticized her verbal twitch. Beca was a completely different girl now. Since her dad left, her stutter had worsened. She couldn't even get out her lunch order at school. All she had to say was, "Pizza." Two syllables. But she couldn't. The lunch ladies would always get impatient and slap some mystery fish on her tray instead and wave her along. Why was fish always their default? Who in their right mind would pick fish over pizza anyways? But Beca couldn't protest.

Beca always dragged a beat up, brown suitcase around school. There was no need for a locker, and she could make easy escapes when needed. More importantly, it was the same suitcase her father had left behind that March night. The same suitcase that delivered the final blow to her parent's marriage. Another item Beca never left home without were her headphones. She'd saved up years of birthday money for them. They were cheap and clunky and huge, but Beca loved them. She loved the way they always hung the same way around her neck every day. She loved how unapproachable she looked with them around her ears. Even if it did put a weird crease in her hair, at least she didn't have to talk to anyone when they were on. There were days Beca didn't think she would get through without her music. At her lowest moments, like the time a boy asked if her dad left so he didn't have to wait for the end of her sentence, Beca would run to the janitor's closet and get lost in her music. She distracted herself by picking out every instrument in a song. Sometimes she'd repeat a song over and over until she had every element memorized. Melody, bass, drums, keyboard, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, strings. It didn't even matter what genre, Beca just needed music that was complex enough to get lost in.

The black monstrosities protected Beca on the dingy bus ride to the first day of Junior year. She wasn't optimistic about it. Last semester, the few people she thought were friends left her. At first she hadn't even realized it was happening. They started talking to her less and less. Plans were canceled. Excuses were made. Soon, her friends disappeared completely. Not even a birthday invitation or a text message. Beca suspected it was her worsening stutter that drove them away. She knew how frustrating it was to listen to. She didn't even blame them. Even so, Beca tried not to think about them and only hear the music blasting through her headphones.

Her sister's finger broke through her concentration as it poked her shoulder violently. Lily mumbled, "Bill. Bill. Bill." She had taken to calling Beca boys names. Super original.

"W-what?" Beca asked angrily. She appraised her sisters long black hair and gigantic, sunken eyes.

"What's your plan for today?" Lily whispered, leaning in close to Beca's ear. Lily spoke too quiet for most people to hear, but Beca was used to it.

_Ugh, not this again_. This was Lily's mumbled question everyday. She was obsessed with planning every day down to the second. She had notebooks and notebooks filled with agendas and sub-agendas and life goals. Every night, she spent hours planning and re-planing the next day, month, and year. Just like Beca's stutter, this obsession had escalated when their father left. You'd think someone who spends so much time planning would be productive, but her plans weren't exactly honorable. Lily's day usually consisted of cutting classes, breaking into the morgue, and setting fires in trashcans downtown. She was pretty intense for a girl so small and quiet. The planning was pretty effective though, because school had no idea what was going on.

When Beca didn't answer Lily's question, she asked, "Do you want to see a dead body?"

Annoyed, Beca answered, "D-dude, no!"

Lily shrugged and went back to her notebook. Looking over, Beca saw her check off of her to-do list, "Ask if Beca wants to see a dead body." Beca pondered calling the police, but then remembered that it would take her five hours just to explain the situation, so she returned the headphones to her ears instead.

School went as Beca expected: long and boring. Later in the day, the debate teacher and the history teacher turned things around for the worse. They presented a skit about the US presidents that involving some interesting cross dressing on Mrs. Glasgow's part. Beca was too mesmerized by Mrs. Glasgow's fake Lincoln beard to listen to her speech, until she started calling for volunteers to join her on the stage. Beca sunk as low as she could in her chair. She clutched her headphones around her neck nervously. Just as she had dreaded, the teacher pointed to her, saying, "How about this young citizen in the purple plaid?" Beca shook her head, but the teacher kept waving her up. Lily took it upon herself to kick the bottom of Beca's chair until she stood up.

Beca's hands were visibly shaking. She could hear the upperclassmen hooting and whistling at her.

"My assistant has come to offer me arguments to help in my debate against the senator!" the teacher proclaimed, pointing to another teacher dressed in a suite and tie. "Now tell me young miss, what cannot a house divided against itself do?" asked the bearded teacher.

"Ahh ... It, i-it can't um ... c-can't," Beca stuttered. She knew the teacher had just said the answer in her speech, but she hadn't been paying attention. Breathing heavily, she kept trying to form words, but none were coming out. _What can't it do, what can't it do? _Suddenly, something clicked. _It can't stand! IT CAN'T STAND YOU IDIOT! Say it can't STAND! _She kept screaming it in her mind, but her mouth couldn't form the words. There was a steel wall between her brain and her mouth that she couldn't break through our climb over. _Stand! Stand! STAND!_ She could see the teacher's face fall. Some citizen she had called on. Beca looked out into the audience. The boys were jeering and the girls were laughing. One face caught Beca's attention. It was the only face that wasn't jeering. Instead, pity was written all over it. Her eyebrows were pulled together in concern.

"I-it can't ... c-can't ... s-s ... s-sss" Beca almost had it! She looked at the girl again, like she was expecting some kind of telepathic energy transfer. _Stand! STAND!_

"Why don't we ask the audience for help?" Mrs. Glasgow asked kindly. Beca glared up at her and nodded. She had been so close. But any excuse to get off stage was welcome.

"What cannot a house divided do?" the teacher asked the crowd.

"Stand!" they all yelled in unison.

Beca slouched back to her seat. Before sitting down, she caught the eye of the sympathetic girl again. She shot Beca a small smile. Beca looked away quickly at sat down. She could feel the tears welling in her eyes. As soon as the presentation was over, she grabbed her suitcase and ran to her sanctuary of music: the janitor's closet.


	3. Chapter 3

Beca kicked at the red front door she didn't want to open. School had ended two hours ago, but she had taken her time walking home. Her house just didn't seem comfortable anymore. Especially since her mom started dating some new guy. He was over all the time now with his son. They seemed nice enough, but it was just too soon. Beca could still hear the suitcases clattering and the car running over the trash cans as it backed up the night her dad left.

Sighing at the memory, Beca reluctantly opened the door. Clanking and banging sounds were coming from the kitchen, meaning that Beca's mom was trying to cook again. Diner had consisted of fast food and microwave meals after Beca's dad left, but it was good to have some home-cooked food again, even if it was just hamburger helper. A heavy bass beat thundered in Lily's room. And was that her ... beatboxing? Beca rolled her eyes. Long ago, she had accepted that she would never understand her sister.

Rounding the corner, she saw her mother bending over a boiling pot of water with two male impostors.

"Hey sweetie! Denis and his boy are staying for dinner. It's Mac-n-Cheese!" her mom said excitedly.

Beca nodded. She was walking past the trio towards the stairs when Denis's son called,

"Hey! Beca, wait up! Do you mind if I come with?"

_Yes I mind! Go invade someone else's house why don't you?_

_"_Uhhm ... I-I mean ... s-sure I mean, I g-guess." she stuttered.

Smiling, the boy followed Beca into her room. Beca looked around nervously, looking for anything embarrassing or incriminating. Posters plastered the walls, displaying all of Beca's favorite bands and singers. The room was dark and a little dingy. One half of the room was taken up by a bed and a small desk. A small upright piano occupied the other half.

"Hey, piano!" The boy said excitedly.

She smiled awkwardly and nodded her head in agreement. It was indeed a piano.

"Hey look, I know it's weird that are parents are like ... together or whatever, but I really think we could be friends! I mean, we'll have to spend _some_ time together at least, so why not be on good terms?" he ended his speech with a smile. The kid always seemed to be smiling, and it made Beca a little more comfortable, despite the promise she made to herself to hate the guy forever. She was about to respond, but crap! She couldn't remember his name.

"Wow ... uhm t-thanks ... um s-sorry I f-forgot ... forgot you're ..."

"Oh, no problem. My name's Jesse."

"R-right! Thanks." Beca said, embarrassed but still looking solemn.

"So show me around, Beca! I want the grand tour of this great space! I think it'll really help me answer the question: Who is Beca Mitchel?" Jesse said holding his fingers out like a camera frame. He examined every poster, and played a song on the piano that he introduced as the most beautiful work in piano performance literature. It turned out to be Chopsticks. Jesse did most of the talking, which suited Beca perfectly. She was starting to think that maybe Jesse wasn't so bad, but she wasn't about to let him know that.

The next morning, Jesse sat behind Beca on the bus, occasionally leaning up to tell her a one-liner he had thought of or ask Beca a question.

"What's your favorite color?" Jesse asked.

"Black." Beca answered shortly.

"Spooky!" Jesse laughed. "Come on, enough with the badassery! What's your real favorite color?"

Beca rolled her eyes, "W-well, I guess ... I mean it's r-really p-p-purple. But dark purple." She added, trying to retain at least some of her dignity.

Beca could feel a ray of hope building inside her. Maybe she had a new friend. She quickly reigned in her hope. She had to remember that Jesse was just part of the dad-replacement-team. They were the enemy.

Beca was looking out the bus window while Lily was carefully making a voodoo doll out of grass and ... human hair? Beca was praying it wasn't her hair when a girl jumped up from her seat and approached them.

"Hey Voodoo Mama Juju!" the girl laughed, looking at Lily. "Switch with me for a sec!"

Lily tried to stare the girl down, but to no avail. She stood up grumpily, muttering, "You're next."

"Hey! I'm Chloe!" the girl chirped as she sat down. Beca recognized her. It was the sympathetic girl from the school skit. She was the only one who didn't laugh or jeer.

"Beca Mitchel, right?" She didn't wait for an answer. "I wanted to talk to you about something very important. You see, two years ago when I was a lowly freshman, Mrs. Glasgow came up to me and asked if I wanted to be on the debate team. Mrs. Glasgow was the one in the beard yesterday by the way. She said my argumentative skills were at the fetal stage, but she intuited some kind of potential. Potential for greatness. She said debate could do wonders for me, and I could do wonders for the team. Well, here I am two years later, doing the same to you." Chloe shot a beaming smile at Beca. "I think you, Beca Mitchel, have some greatness in you that hasn't been tapped. Well, I'm tapping it! I think you should join the Plainsboro High debate team. We're the tits. And we're totally going to kick Trenton's ass at the championship this year! So what do you think?" Chloe looked at Beca expectantly with a huge grin on her face.

Beca didn't think Chloe had paused for breath through her whole speech. Yet, she still retained her dazzling smile. And her eyes. They were the bluest Beca had ever seen. Beca suddenly became self-conscious about how much she was staring at them, so she played a torturous game of back and forth. She looked like she had a twitch. Realizing she had to say something, Beca said,

"You mean ... y-you mean public speaking? Yeah ... I-I don't think ... don't think ..."

"Beca! It would be a great opportunity for you and for the team. Our dream is to go the the championships and crush the competition. Help us turn our dreams into a reality?"

On the last sentence, Chloe eyes suddenly turned soft. Beca almost gasped. How could she say no to that face? But then she remembered that face was trying to make her speak in front of people.

"D-did you s-see me ... l-like yesterday? I m-mean ..."

"Resolved that the federal government should support the teaching of abstinence in public schools. From sex. It's totes better than farming subsidies! That was our resolution last year."

"Oh."

"It's settled then! We've got a meeting tomorrow, you can sit in and see how things work. And look," Chloe said leaning her face close to Beca, "I think we're going to be really fast friends."

Beca stopped breathing. She wasn't used to having people invade her personal bubble. That's why her heart started beating so much faster.

Before Beca could protest, the bus stopped and Chloe jumped up and bounced out onto the sidewalk. Beca watched her walk up to her front door. Chloe shot her a quick smile over her shoulder before opening it. As the bus started moving again, Beca didn't know what to think. She wasn't sure what to make of Chloe. She was pushy and intrusive, but she was also sweet, and sympathetic. Beca felt insulted, intrigued, and entranced all at once. As she lay in bed that night, Beca pondered Chloe's phrase, "fast friends." Was it too much to hope for two friends in a day? Beca hoped not as she dozed off to dreams of red hair, blue eyes, and chopsticks.


End file.
